The Council meets it's match
by Nutjob117
Summary: The UNSC becomes the Systems Alliance after it allies with the Sangelli, the Unggoy and the Lekgolo/Mgalekgolo. When the Turians enter SA space they are in for a rude awakening- the Council are not the most powerfull military force in the universe.
1. Chapter 1

After the battle of installation 00 The UNSC began to build and expand, with allies of the Sangelli, the Unggoy, the Mgalekgolo/ Lekgolo and the Huragok. All other Covenant races were hunted to the brink of extinction, some to extinction in the case of the Jiralhanae and San 'Shyuum. While expanding they decided to rename there-now joint government the Systems Alliance, they also discovered an ancient method of transportation that their scientists called a "Mass Relay". When it was discovered that this mass relay was powered by dark matter it was soon locked down with a constant military presence in system. Later while exploring the edge of the Orion arm of the galaxy that they were situated in they came across a Forerunner Exploration party, made up entirely of machines, and they soon joined the "Reclaimers" in the SA thanks to this discovery the military aspect of the SA was never going to be greater, as with help from the Forerunner party the Ark was again located and repaired- to the point where we could make ships with enough fire power to crack a planet, these ships were called Cortana- Class cruisers, which measured at 36 kilometres in length- only eight were made and even then their crews were kept in constant Cryogenic sleep, ready to be awoken at a moment's notice and their main gun was codenamed Ragnarok- the planet Cracker it was a MAC cannon that fired 60,000 tonne rounds at 24,000,000 kilometres per hour.

Of all the "Patrol routes" in SA could hand out Shanxi System was by far the dullest, it was three large cruisers Patrolling one system and, in shifts, sitting in the centre of the system and constantly watching the "Mass Relay". Little did they know how much that could, and would, change.

**2755:**** July 11****th****:**** Council Space: Citadel: Galactic Standard Time 12:00**

"General Arcturus, just because the newly active Relay is within Turian space does not mean that you can lead a crusade into unknown space without Council support." The Asari Councillor was trying to explain.

The General looked at her with steely confidence in his eyes. "I already have _ma'am_ the expeditionary fleet has already been sent along with a Military escort, and as you can see I'm too busy arguing with you to stop them."

The Turian Councillor raised his arm to silence his Asari colleague's outburst. "Quiet now. He _does _have a point he did already send the fleet before he got here, but she also has a point you should have waited until your fleet had council backup."

The Salarian opened her mouth to speak before a rather distressed Turian came running up, "General Mission report from the expeditionary Fleet sir, you have to read this sir."

The General took the pad and read through the report and his mandibles began to slow down until eventually they stopped all together, he looked up at the Council and merely said. "I don't think that a Council fleet would have made much difference." And then uploading the mission report before sitting down and crying and saying that he was sorry over and over again.

**2755: July 11****th****: ****UNSC Space: Shanxi System: UNSC Capital Vessel **_**Spirit of Fire**_**: Galactic Standard Time 08:00**

Admiral Cutter sighed, when he had been awoken by Serena and told that the UNSC were refitting the _Spirit of Fire _he had gotten more than he had hoped- even if he was now sat on guard duty on a piece of highly dangerous equipment. He didn't think his day could get any worse until…

"Admiral, the Mass Relay is powering up someone, somewhere has activated it and is coming through." Serina the _Spirit of Fire_'s Ai told Cutter.

Cutter responded instantly. "Battle station, full alert. Get _Autumn's Fall_ and _Infernal Wrath_ here asap. Call for all available backup, I want to be ready for anything."

Almost as soon as he said that both _Autumn's Fall _and _Infernal Wrath_ turned and headed for flanking position on either side of _Spirit of Fire_. Suddenly slipspace ruptures appeared on the edges of the system and Several Everest-Class Assault cruisers entered system, they were the _Price of Vengeance_, _Pitiful __Lust_,_ Unhindered Rage_ and the _Finite Supply of Ammo_. They were followed by_ Autumn's _sister ship the _Summer Drought_ along with the _Infinity_ and two Infinity-Class Battle Cruisers the _Archangel's Revenge_ and the _Endless Humility_. All of which fell into a grid formation based around the 2.5 Kilometre long Command Ship. Then the Mass Relay flared and out came a large group of ships, some armed-these were obviously military ships, and some unarmed- more than likely exploration ships.

Admiral Cutter analysed the situation. "Charge the MAC's and scatter with intention to surround." He ordered the fleet then to his own weapons officer. "Charge the hardlight cannons and Spartan laser grids, load the torpedo bays and arm the slipspace missiles, we are not letting them in without a fight."

The exploration craft quickly vanished back through the relay leaving a dozen, barely frigate weight ships behind, with weapons charged. "Does _Infinity, Archangel's Revenge _or _Endless Humility_ have Forerunner sensors installed? I want full scans of those ships if so_."_

Serina was instantly sending messages to the appropriate ship board AI's and soon orange beams of light extended from all three Infinity-Class ships.

**2755: July 11****th****: ****Turian Command Ship: Unknown Space: Galactic Standard Time 08:****30**

"General, the large ships are sending some sort of sensor beam towards our ships!" The Helmsman Called.

General Desolas Arterius responded with. "Warn them that if they don't stop I will open fire on their command ship."

**2755: July 11****th****: **_**Spirit of Fire**_** Bridge: Sha****nxi System: 08:31**

"Admiral, the lead ship appears to be hailing us." Serina stated.

"Appears to be Serina? I need definites here, I want to avoid another war."

Serina placed her hand on her hip. "I'm not sure Admiral I received a message but I am unable to decipher it."

"Hmm. Get them to scan the computer cores and attempt to analyse their language."

**2755: July 11****th****: Tu****rian Command Ship: Unknown Space: 08:34**

"Sir! The sensor beams are now focused on the computer cores!" The helmsman reported.

"OPEN FIRE! ALL SHIPS, ALL GUNS CONCENTRATE FIRE! THEY'RE TRYING TO RAID OUR DATABANKS!" Desolas roared.

All the Turians charged weapons emptied themselves into the Enemy Dreadnought.

Desolas smiled, until the Dreadnought ploughed straight through the incoming hail of fire and all it did was shimmer blue.

**2755: July 11****th****: **_**Spirit of Fire**_** Bridge: Shanxi System: 08:40**

"Sir their weapons are discharging on our position."

"Serina! Possible damage?"

"None sir, the shields are more than strong enough to withstand that assault."

Cutter smiled, "Time for a show of strength. Charge straight through then open fire to disable not destroy, _disable_. That goes for all ships."

The _Spirit of Fire_ charged through the incoming fire and then returned fire with full fleet support, systematically firing point-to-point lasers at the unknown ships. They tore through armour plating and the engines on the first few, causing chain reactions and destroying those ships. Then as the enemy fleet ran to the Relay the devastating assault continued. One ship was crippled before it reached the Relay of the rest only one had reached the Relay unscathed. Admiral Cutter looked at the destruction before him and said. "They'll be back. Serina, send a report to HIGHCOM along with a request for as many ships as possible and for a Spartan boarding team to deal with our lone captives here."

**2755: July 11****th****: ****Council Space: Citadel: Galactic Standard Time 12:30**

Silence reigned supreme in the Council Chambers as the Councillors read and reread the report they had been given, General Arcturus had been removed from the proceedings and the councillors then began a debate on what to do. The Turian spoke up first. "We should take a fully armed Military convoy and attempt to negotiate if that fails then we go to war."

"Agreed." The Asari responded.

"All angles considered. Must agree with Turian." The Salarian repeated.


	2. Chapter 2

**2755: July 11****th****: Alliance Space: Shanxi System: 20:00**

Captain Cutter looked around the room he was in, the conference room was filled with delegate from the Alliance Member races. While he waited for them to calm down he glanced out of the window, and even now he was shocked at the alliance's response to the first contact: All ships within one light year of Shanxi had been called to install a military lock-down of the system, Over a hundred ODPs had been called from core worlds to protect Shanxi, The "Spartan" Fleet had been mobilised to join the forces at Shanxi. The Spartan fleet was made up of eight ships, the_Pillar of Valour, Relentless Victory, Cartographer's Beginning, Unstopp__able Justice, Minor Deceit, Unbending Loyalty, Unbreaking Will, Relentless Hunt_, not much I give you, but all of those ships were Cortana-Class Battle Cruisers. Each ship had a full complement of Spartans. Currently in system were over 300 UNSC vessels of varying sizes, 100 Sangelli War craft, a Dozen Forerunner Battle ships, and the only Mgalekgolo star ship ever built the _Endless-Hive_ Every gun in that ship was a variant of the scarab main gun.

Cutter now looked back at the assembled delegates, Shipmaster Zakl 'Alakav, Unggoy General Quinhip, the Mgalekgolo Command-Hive Vynufy Ditu Gumo and the Forerunner Exploration fleet leader 05-032 Mendicant Bias

"Now we are only waiting for Grand Admiral Sierra-517, but I don't suppose that he'll mind us starting without him."

The Shipmaster looked confused. "I would rather not incur his wrath, seeing as he a Spartan."

Serina popped up on the table and responded with. "You won't have to wait long Shipmaster, a slipspace rupture is opening on the edge of the system, a huge Rupture."

All the occupants in the room looked at the view screen and watched as an enormous hole in slipspace appeared and then out of this rupture advanced eight 36 kilometre long Cruisers. They all moved to tactical positions around the Relay except one, the _Relentless Victory_, which moved within transmission range.

A Hologram appeared in the room depicting a large, 10 foot tall man in full Battle Armour. "Grand Admiral Sierra-517, here as requested by the SA governors, now let's get on with it."

As the Grand Admiral said this, the Mass relay powered up. Sierra-517 snapped into command mode. "Activate the battle net. Charge all guns and defence grids, get the ODPs online and have firing solutions prepared in case the fleet in not friendly and can out gun us. Also launch the Forerunner construction drones and get them building a station large enough to act as a prison if necessary, but small enough to be seen as a negation area."

**2755: July 11****th****: Council Space: Unknown** **Space: Orbit Around Relay 3****14: 18:00**

The Turian ship _Verrikan_ was waiting in orbit of the Relay. Primarch Fedorian was pacing steadily around the bridge. "What is taking the Asari so long?"

The Comm Officer looked up. "Sir, just in, the Asari are bringing the _Destiny Ascension, _Sir the whole Council is coming with the assault group. They have hopes of negotiating with these new Aliens."

"Damnit! Our purpose was to retaliate to an attack that was completely uncalled for-"

"Actually Sir, Desolas fired first. He got jumpy after they were scanned and-"

"This is a _retaliation_ mission. The Hierarchy does not forgive or forget. I will not forgive, regardless of what the Council says, we will have vengeance."

**2755: July 11****th****: Council Space: Unknown** **Space: Orbit Around Relay 314: 19:00**

Primarch Fedorian was pissed. He was no longer in charge of the mission, some Asari Matriarch was.

*This is Destiny Ascension to all ships in the Council Fleet. Prepare to go through the Relay.*

Fedorian looked at the fleet amassed on this side of the relay and smiled. Even though the report said the Aliens had 5 kilometre long Dreadnoughts, they had no chance against the Ascension.

**2755: July 11****th****: Alliance Space: Shanxi System: Bridge of**_** Relentless Victory**_**: 20:10**

The Relay Flashed on the bridge screens, the bridges of Cortana-Class Cruisers were in the centre of the ship unlike most Human ships, and a Fleet of 150 ships of varying size, weight and design appeared through the relay.

Tribus Ante Bellum, the _Victory's_ shipboard AI spoke up. "It would appear that the Aliens are of a similar conglomerate group of races as the SA. Orders sir?"

"Attempt to interact with their systems all the while sending a message telling them what we are doing, while you are in their systems attempt to get samples of their languages and/or translation software so that we can understand them, also-" The Grand Admiral was cut of midsentence because one of the ships, a ship of similar design to the ships that came through the relay before, broke formation and charged straight towards _Relentless Victory_ and opened fire. "Ram it." The _Victory_ activated it's Forerunner engines and surged forwards crushing the much smaller ship in an instant.

**2755: July 11****th****: Alliance Space: Shanxi System: Bridge of**_** Destiny Ascension**_**: 20:10**

As the council fleet exited the relay Matriarch Benezia's jaw dropped in awe as she saw a fleet of over 400 ships, there 8 several larger craft which were hives of activity surrounded by fighters and smaller ships- this species had to be at least on par with the Protheans to create such large Stations, the pure amount of ships that had been summoned to their side of the relay was shocking. Then the _Verrikan_ charged the gold Command ship. "What is Fedorian doing? This is Destiny Ascension to Captain of the _Verrikan_: By the Goddess Fedorian, What are you doing?"

*This is a retaliation mission Matriarch. The Hierarchy does not forgive or forget. I am attacking the command station. _Verrikan_ over and out.*

Benezia could only watch on in horror as the revenge crazed Turian charged his ship at the Alien station, what shocked her more though was when instead of firing on board weapon systems to intercept him the station moved forward on it's own propulsion system. Those weren't Space Stations, those were Dreadnoughts. The mere thought that this species could surpass even the Protheans was enough to bring her to her knees, it took all of her Matriarch self-control not to fall to her knees right now. She looked at the command Vessel that had stopped moving after it crushed the _Verrikan_.

"Matriarch! The command ship is hailing us on all channels but the message is in a language we can't translate."

"Matriarch, our cyber-warfare suite is being completely destroyed by a hacking attempt by the Command Ship."

Benezia just looked around at all the lost expressions around her. "Tell the fleet to power down their weapons. Let them hack us, they find what they're looking for in our systems."

**2755: July 11****th****: Alliance Space: Shanxi System: Bridge of**_** Relentless Victory**_**: 20:15**

Tribus Ante Bellum reported in. "Admiral the Council fleet has deactivated their weapons and their flagship has lowered their cyber-warfare defences for us to enter they're systems. We have found translation software and adapted it to translate all Alliance race languages. We also discovered a huge amount of information on their component races and military statistics. It would appear that they have a bad history with Artificial Intelligences: in all cases they would go rogue and kill their masters. They have an Ultimate group of three races called council races, these races each have a representative on the Council: all laws made by the council are Ultimate and cannot be broken by any race examples of these laws are that: All AI are outlawed: Each race must have an ambassador on the Citadel: All races must Subvert their command chain to allow for the Council's "Requests". The Largest ship in their combined fleet is the large one with the four arms protruding from the central hollow area, the _Destiny Ascension_."

Sierra-517 cocked his head to the side thoughtfully. "Send them the updated translation matrix, clearly label it Trib. Get the Construction drones working double time. Move the majority of the fleet back to orbit Shanxi but keep _Infinity_ and _Endless Humility _flanking us. Have _Minor Deceit _engage it's cloak and position itself behind the relay with order that if the negotiations result in war she is to fire a Ragnarok round into the relay. Send a message to the flagship: We request a representative of every race, Trib list them all including ones that aren't a part of this Council."

"Or allied to it?"

"Or allied to it."

**2755: July 11****th****: Alliance Space: Shanxi System: Bridge of**__**an unnamed cloaked vessel: 20:15**

This data is extremely promising, shall send summary to fleet. Ultimate decision: undecided these Platforms have yet to reach a Consensus.

**A/N thanks for all the reviews people. I hope that this is an improvement to those of you who had complaints but in reality this is my fic and I will write it how I want it, this is also my most popular fic so thanks for all the follows.**

Tribus Ante Bellum means "three front war" in Latin (I got it from Google translate so don't kill me if it's wrong) the reason I chose this name will be revealed in upcoming chapters.


	3. Chapter 3

**2755: July 11****th****: Alliance Space: Shanxi System: Bridge of**_** Relentless Victory**_**: 20:10**

As I looked on at the fore runner construction drones using scrap metal and spare parts to forge a basic airtight conference room, neutral ground- of a sort, I remembered the first contact with the forerunner exploration party.

_***flashback***_**  
2557: July 15****th****: Edge of the Orion Arm: Uninhabited System: Bridge of the **_**Infinity**_**: 12:51**

"What is that thing?" Captain Del Rio muttered.

I looked at him. "Obviously not the Chief. It looks Forerunner."

"I agree with our friend." Commander Sarah Palmer said.

Lasky smirked. "Try contacting it."

Del Rio raised his eyebrow. "Who put you in charge?"

I smiled behind my helmet. "I believe I did Captain."

"You can't order me around Spartan. This is my ship."

I responded with. "Actually Captain, if had you checked who I was when I came aboard you would have seen that I was promoted to Admiral so I could over rule any order on the battlefield. So for carelessness and insubordination I demote you to commander and make Lasky the Captain of the Infinity."

Lasky looked shocked as he watched Del Rio storm out of the bridge. "Well then, try contacting the vessel."

"Yes, Captain." The comms officer responded.

Within seconds one of the screens around the viewport changed to show a Forerunner Monitor with that was a shifting selection of colours instead of being white/blue like 343 Guilty Spark. "Greetings Reclaimers! I am 05-032 Mendicant Bias I am now in command of this Forerunner exploration fleet. Reclaimers, is there anything I may do for you before I continue with my previous objective?"

I shared a look with Lasky. "Well for one I would like to offer you a place in an alliance with the UNSC, we would greatly benefit from your assistance. Also we came here hoping to locate a damaged vessel that had succeeded in defeating the flood on installation 00. We are sending the appropriate data for analyse."

"Oh my! That's not good." Mendicant Bias muttered. "I have found it. It is heading for Requiem."

Lasky now spoke his mind. "Requiem? Can you send us the co-ordinates for it?"

"Oh no, I couldn't do that. You might wake him up. You see Requiem is officially a shield world but truthfully it is more of a… prison world. I contains the Forerunners greatest general, warrior and war criminal."

"You say that we might risk waking him? Well there is a Reclaimer on that ship that could easily wake him." I pointed out.

"That's not good at all. I believe I can access the Requiem controls and initiate a self-destruct sequence, but I can only do that on orders of a Reclaimer."

I nodded and Mendicant paused for a moment and then looked at me. "It is done."

"Now how about we talk about that alliance?"

"What a splendid idea Reclaimer! I am honoured that we still have a use all these years later."

I smiled. "Well Mendicant I can tell you one thing we are no way near as technologically advanced as the Forerunners."

_***end of flashback***_  
**2755: July 11****th****: Alliance Space: Shanxi System: Bridge of**_** Relentless Victory**_**: 20:10**

"Sir!" Trib called from beside me.

I glanced over at her. "Yes Trib?"

"There is a cloaked ship hailing us. It is another species who only refer to themselves as the Geth. They are a synthetic species originally a workforce but when their creators attempted to kill them they fought back."

"Invite one on board Trib. They obviously want to remain hidden from our organic friends over there."

"Yes, sir."


End file.
